Killer Cupcakes (Complete Novel)

Excerpt - Murderous Muffins

Murderous Muffins

Read the first chapter of the next Celebrity Cupcakes Cozy Mystery! And make sure to sign up for my mailing list to hear about future releases: http://www.mildaharris.com/p/contact.html

It had been one week exactly since the killer cupcake murder and Celebrity Cupcakes and Coffee still had a line around the block for a good part of the day. We were infamous and our cupcakes were delicious. It was a winning combination for drumming up business.

Our best seller so far was the Marilyn Monroe cupcake. It was quickly followed by the classics, chocolate and vanilla. There were no fancy names for those since they were in the classics cupcake section of the bakery case. Nina also had a cupcake of the day and that one usually went quick too. Today's was the Elvis cupcake. It had peanut butter frosting on top of a banana cupcake. Yum. I tried it right before my shift and it was absolutely delicious.

I'd only worked three shifts so far, both about eight hours apiece. By the end of each one I found that my feet were killing me. I was either on register and handing out baked goods or playing barista and making coffee drinks, but I never stopped moving. When I took the job I thought it would be low key because I was working at a bakery. Boy, was I wrong. 
There were thirty minutes left of my shift. I'd been watching the clock between taking customer orders. It wasn't because I couldn't wait to get off work. It was because I knew Easton was coming in.

I hadn't seen him all week and I'll admit, I'd been pretty disappointed about that. Today was actually the first time I was going to see him since Celebrity Cupcakes and Coffee opened for business. I was super excited about it too. I'd even taken care to touch up my makeup during my break. I looked as great as I could in a T-shirt, jeans, and work apron. The only downside was that I was working with Skylar. I'd been lucky earlier in the week since I'd gotten to work with Charlotte. 
I was starting to wonder if Skylar was as wary of me as I was of her. In theory we should have tons to talk about. We were both wannabe writers in Hollywood and I was pretty sure we both had a crush on the same guy. It should have made for an interesting shift. 
It hadn't, though. We hadn't talked at all except for the occasional necessary request. Of course, it had been busy. Still, in other jobs I had, even if you were swamped, there was usually some gossip time in between. With Skylar and I it had been silent. Was I just feeling awkward? Or did she dislike me too?

It was lucky then that in the last two hours we'd had a trainee. Even though we were all new too, he was there to observe and help us. His name was Dylan. He was twenty-four and a musician. I would have guessed that anyway from how he looked. He had dyed black hair and a small eyebrow ring over his left eye. Other than playing and writing music, he worked a few part time jobs and Celebrity Cupcakes and Coffee was going to be one of them. He seemed cool enough. Unlike Skylar, at least he was trying to make small talk. He had asked us both questions about ourselves, trying to get to know us. The mood had actually lifted considerably since Nina had brought him over to join us.

"Excuse me, sweetheart. We'd like to have some cupcakes," my current customer asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I turned away from Dylan and back to the register. I thought it was so weird when random guys called me honey or sweetheart, but I just ignored it. Then I tried not to stare. He totally had that old Justin Bieber swoop haircut. It was completely outdated. Then again, maybe he wanted to be Justin Bieber. He sort of looked like him, although maybe it was just the haircut. His clothing style wasn't the same at all. He was dressed in a really expensive button-down shirt and pants.

Before I could wonder if he liked to flip his hair, he turned to his friends and said, "You guys should all get one. This is the place where Penelope Rose ate a killer cupcake and dropped dead. It's famous."